People rely on disposable absorbent articles, such as disposable diapers for infants, disposable training pants for toddlers, and incontinence products for adults, as part of their everyday lives.
Disposable absorbent articles are designed to absorb and contain body wastes. Caregivers use disposable absorbent articles for several reasons, including the convenience of the caregiver, and the health and comfort of the wearer of the disposable absorbent article. Accordingly, manufacturers of disposable absorbent articles spend considerable amounts of time and money on researching and developing: new disposable absorbent articles; new features for disposable absorbent articles; improved performance of existing disposable absorbent articles; and other related research-and-development activities. Manufacturers also spend significant sums of time and money communicating the existence and/or benefits of such new and/or improved disposable absorbent articles to consumers through advertising, packaging, and other marketing activities.
Unfortunately, the comfort, well-being, or stress level of an infant in relation to the performance of an existing, improved, or new disposable absorbent article may be difficult to determine and/or quantify. Generally, an infant provides signals as to his or her comfort, well being, or stress level in the form of facial expressions, other physical motions, and sounds. Some signals, such as smiling and cooing, may indicate that the infant is satisfied or happy with current environmental conditions and/or bodily conditions. Other signals, such as crying, generally indicate that the infant is not satisfied with current environmental conditions and/or bodily conditions. Such signals, whether indicative of a positive state of well being (smiling and cooing) or a negative state of well being (crying) may not be quantifiable and/or readily correlatable to the infant's perception of the disposable absorbent article, or its performance.
What is needed is a system, device, and method by which indicia of an infant's perception of a disposable absorbent article can be sensed, quantified, and used to help evaluate the performance of said article. The information obtained with such a system could be used for a variety of purposes, including: comparing the performance of a plurality of disposable-absorbent articles; changing the functional performance and/or technical specifications and/or materials-of-construction of a disposable-absorbent article in response to the obtained information; communicating messages to consumers regarding the performance of a disposable-absorbent article based on the obtained information; and other similar research-and-development and/or marketing activities.